Deep Blues: Bill Traylor 1854-1949

by Josef Helfenstein, Josef Helfenstein

Bill Traylor has become an almost mythical figure in the history of American folk art. Born into slavery in 1854, he only began to draw at the age of 82 in 1939, when he moved from the plantation where he was born to Montgomery, Alabama. From his observations on Montgomery's Monroe Avenue and his memories of his life on the plantation, he created his own original pictorial world. This book presents not only Traylor's compellingly native drawings but also fascinating documentary photographs that reveal the daily life of southern blacks - in particular Traylor and his milieu. These photographs, taken by Charles Shannon and the Swiss journalist Annemarle Schwarzanbach, reminiscent of the works of Walker Evans, capture the atmosphere of Montgomery and rural Alabama at the same time as Traylor was beginning to draw.
The contributors discuss Traylor's life and work, placing them in their social and historical background.

Genres: Art

192 pages, Hardcover

First published August 11, 1999

Reviews

[Eddie Watkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the more interesting "outsider" artist stories. A young white man, a photographer, happens upon a poor old black man sitting in front of a store drawing on odd scraps of paper and cardboard. He loves the drawings so much he devotes himself to getting them known. It took almost 30 years for them to catch on, but now Traylor's considered one of the finest.

The story as fleshed out in the book is far more interesting and touching than this precis, and the photographs of Bill Traylor at the time of his discovery are great - open-faced unconcern with the interest shown in him, sitting on a store's front porch beside an old Coke cooler, drawing materials on his knees. Traylor was an old man (born a slave) before he even thought of picking up a drawing implement and what he was doing he didn't even consider art. I guess they were things he did just to entertain himself. At his first opening he pointed at his own drawings - look at that chicken! - with the same excitement as someone who'd never seen them.

There's so much grace and animation in his silhouette-like drawings, and so much pure play, and so much pure fierceness. They are an example of creativity in one of its purest, simplest forms.

[Diann Blakely]

The work of sculptor William Edmondson bears comparison to that of a slightly older artist from Alabama, Bill Traylor. DEEP BLUES is a welcome catalogue of works by Traylor, who was born into slavery and began drawing only after moving from the plantation to Montgomery in his 80s. Traylor lived on the city's inhospitable streets and frequently used cast-off cardboard as the surface for his drawings, which are as hard-edged, frenetic, profane, uncanny, and disturbing as Edmondson's sculptures are modulated, serene, biblical, familiar, and consoling. The titles Traylor bestowed on some of his drawings are downright scary: "Man Kicking Woman," "One-Legged Man With Airplane," "Ferocious Cat," etc.

Like Edmondson, Traylor had his chroniclers: Charles Shannon's portrait of the artist--eyes glancing furtively between his tall, shabby hat and straggly gray beard--mirrors the voodoo elegance of Traylor's masterpieces. Additionally, Swiss-born journalist Annemarie Schwartenbach used her camera to document rural and urban milieus in the same region of Alabama at the very time Traylor began to draw. The work of both photographers, which unshowily introduces the artist in this excellent catalogue, itself bears comparison to Walker Evans'.

The essays in DEEP BLUES both illuminate the context in which Traylor performed his magic on cardboard while also pointing up the difficulties of making transracial commentary about his art. Josef Helfenstein's essay, which discusses Shannon's photographs of Traylor at work, reveals links between the two Alabamians, Virginia-born painter Robert Gwathmey, Memphis photographer William Eggleston. "The contrast between Traylor's concentrated involvement in an activity that is his own," Helfenstein points out, "and the sleepy waiting and seemingly apathetic observation of the other inhabitants of the sidewalk could not be greater. The only 'action' that competes with him are the trademarks visible in the Coca Cola advertising signs."


(originally published in the NASHVILLE SCENE)

[Brian Cohen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing story (and art). The only thing wrong with it is that we don’t know more about Traylor. The book does excellent, swift and accessible work with what we do know about his life, critical analysis of his art, and the times in which Traylor lived.